Jurgen Klopp says he takes full responsibility for Liverpool’s 3-0 collapse at Brighton as the Reds’ season goes from bad to worse.
Jurgen Klopp says he takes full responsibility for Liverpool’s 3-0 collapse at Brighton as he offered an apology to the supporters who made the trip to the Amex Stadium.
Danny Welbeck added to Solly March’s second-half double as the Reds slipped to another frustrating defeat on the road in the Premier League. Liverpool have now lost six times this term and find themselves seven points adrift of Newcastle who occupy the final Champions League place.
Klopp’s side have won just eight of their Premier League fixtures this term and have taken only eight points from nine away games. The manager made a beeline for the away supporters at full time, offering up a gesture of apology before later expanding on his gratitude to the fans in his post-match press conference.
“Imagine I would have been happy with that? Congratulations to Brighton for playing an outstanding game,” Klopp said. “I really thought in moments we made it too easy for them but in general they were outstanding and we weren’t.
“We tried to help the boys with a slightly different organisation. I thought it could have worked pretty well. We had moments where it worked well, where we put them under pressure, but when we won the ball we then lost balls in moments far too easily. That was the main problem. We never got something going. Brighton were better for the whole 96, 97 minutes.
“But it was still 0-0 at half-time. It’s allowed for us to play a not so good half and then go from there. But it was the worst possible start to the second half in a game where it was already clear that one team was ready to play a really good game and one team was fighting with themselves to get something going.
“The problems were the same as last week when we spoke about it. We don’t win the key battles on the pitch at key challenges and we give the ball away too easily. It’s difficult to organise protection for losing balls that you should not lose. It’s fully my responsibility. I had an idea with a different formation and it didn’t work out. Sorry.
“I think they were exceptional to be honest. They realised it wasn’t our day and they showed they are real supporters. How can you say thank you? That was my way of doing it.”
Within minutes of his side going 2-0 down, Klopp made four changes as Harvey Elliott, Joe Gomez, Naby Keita and teenager Ben Doak replaced Jordan Henderson, Joel Matip, Fabinho and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
On the decision to make four changes at once, Klopp added: “It was just about fresh legs, not getting injuries. We are a team who don’t foul usually but we got yellow cards and you could see the frustration.
“Okay, come on, don’t make it worse by getting a red. It makes no sense to talk about it, but it was really necessary to play our real football.
“With a man marking system, you have to move, you have to pass. We said ‘okay, bring on fresh legs and let’s play a little bit’. In the end nothing worked out today. In little moments everyone could see how close we were to causing more problems than we did.
“But I don’t expect anyone to remember good moments from our game. when you lose balls in moments where you cannot be protected that’s why they were able to pass through us at full throttle speed. I have nothing good to say about this game.”
